The Maverick family called - they want their name back. (A possible reason for a new description this week. Or maybe they'll keep trying until the numbers come up.)

Oh, ouch. Spreadsheets should be handled with care.

Barclays wound up with scores of Lehman Brothers trading positions that it never meant to buy when a pair of very junior lawyers attempted to reformat an Excel spreadsheet and convert it into a pdf document. The result was that a "hidden" column of 179 contracts no[t] intended to be purchased became unhidden, and when Barclays filed the document with the court it wound up picking up the contracts.

[link]

Awesome animated .gif of McCain from last night: [link]

Comments on the debate

Canadian oil is OK.

Oil is fungible. This is a problem I have with all politicians though.

Cosmetic surgery and transplants?

I think he meant hair transplants.

Senator Government

Great verbal slip for his base.

eloquence

I was turned off by this, I thought it was a bit condescending. Maybe that was just me.

I don't get why McCain thinks that autism is the same thing as Downs.

That was a bit awkward. I got his point, but he did make me think he thought that Palin's son had autism instead of Downs. Speaking of which, his harping on Palin's understanding of special needs kids when talking about her attributes as a veep made it sound like Palin was running for First Lady instead.

I thought the debate was a wash on substance but a clear win for Obama on style. I thought McCain did well with being aggressive, and pointing out the spending problem with Obama's agenda but he didn't really articulate his agenda all that well. Sounded like tax and spend vs. borrow and spend. I could go on and on about that stuff, but gee whiz the difference in demeanor is just so glaring. To me a clear Obama win and he didn't really need to do better than a draw anyhow.

Oh I almost forgot, I don't think it was a great idea to mock language about "Health of the Mother" in a bill.

Uhm...I have Laura do it for me.

Our new tv has all kinds of input options for computer, game machines, etc. At the moment I have it hooked up to cable until I map it all out. A week ago I was on rabbit ears. It was less complex.

Michael Schiavo is doing ads against Florida's anti-gay marriage proposition.

Hadn't seen that yet. One of my neighbors, a minister, has a NO sign in her yard. I don't have much hope for it being defeated though.

I think he meant hair transplants.

I suspect he did, but the fact remains that he just said "transplants", and defined them as "Gold-Plated Cadillac" health care. Even assuming it was a straight-up slip-up, it really wasn't a good one for him.

I suspect he did, but the fact remains that he just said "transplants", and defined them as "Gold-Plated Cadillac" health care. Even assuming it was a straight-up slip-up, it really wasn't a good one for him.

Also, let's be clear - the kind of "cosmetic surgery" covered by insurance companies is things like skin grafts for burn victims and Roger Ebert's shiny new lower jaw after cancer ate his old one. Nobody's insurance is paying for a tummy tuck.

I've only been following the wacky travails of the Dow since it started dropping like a rock. Back in the good ol' days, what was the typical % change in the Dow for the day?

(Currently (with the 20 min delay) it's down 245, or 2.86%.)

How the HELL has "extreme pro-abortion position" come down to "health of the mother" ? WHAT?

::takes ovaries and moves to canada::